Everyone's talking about Paleo

Could you eat like a caveman?Photo / Thinkstock

The Paleolithic diet has gained substantial ground in the past two years as more nutritionists and health gurus turn a sceptical eye to the benefits of a grain-based diet, which many of us eat.

Embracing the foods of hunter-gatherers, the Paleo diet is red-hot right now. Celebrities such as Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Biel and Miley Cyrus are reportedly eating like cavemen.

But the Paleo diet is hardly new. First popularised in the mid-1970s by gastroenterologist Walter Voegtlin, it in many ways resembles the South Beach, Atkins and other low-carb regimens. The Paleo diet consists of fish, grass-fed pasture-raised meats, vegetables, fruit, mushrooms, nuts and roots, while eschewing grains, legumes, potatoes, refined salt, refined sugar, processed oils and, in most cases, dairy products. The basic idea is that by adopting this ancestral pre-agricultural diet, people may circumnavigate some of the ``diseases of civilisation.''

For Wendy Schwartz, 49, the Paleo diet was a New Year's resolution two years ago. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in food and nutrition from New York University.

"I took a divergent path,'' she said.

"I got out of nutrition, but my passion has been studying nutrition and learning about supplements.''

Since adopting the Paleo diet, Schwartz has lost 11kgs, but she perceives her health benefits to go far beyond just weight lost. She differentiates Paleo from other low-carb diets because, she says, Paleo focuses not only on what you eat but the source of your food. Paleo focuses on quality ingredients whenever possible and really restricts the use of grains.

Schwartz found Paleo because she was having trouble digesting wheat products. In the age of the gluten-free craze, the Paleo diet fits in nicely.

The Paleo diet has detractors. Some nutrition experts are concerned with increased consumption of saturated fat from the meat-centric diet and a lack of calcium from the elimination of dairy. Also, there is much research that shows legumes and whole grains help fight some diseases of aging and keep blood sugar at appropriate levels. Neither is part of the Paleo diet.

"There's no real research behind it,'' Lisa Sassoon, a registered dietitian and assistant clinical professor of nutrition at NYU, told the Huffington Post last year.

"And it eliminates things that do have research behind them: grains, beans and low-fat dairy.''

Still, Schwartz is a staunch proponent and offers these suggestions for moving toward a Paleo diet:

* Eat real food. If you can buy food that doesn't have labels, that's ideal.

* If you can buy grass-fed and pasture-raised meat, get higher-fat cuts. If you can't, go with leaner cuts. (And don't rely too heavily on meat: It should be no more than 35 per cent of daily calorie intake.)

A typical Paleo day:

Breakfast: Pastured or organic eggs with pastured butter or organic coconut oil, a couple of tomato slices on the side and half a cup of organic berries.

Lunch: Grass-fed burger with a salad of a variety of vegetables, extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, romaine lettuce and sliced jicama. Throw in a couple of walnuts and some avocado.

Mid-afternoon snack: A handful of organic macadamia nuts with half an organic apple.

Dinner: Broiled wild salmon with organic broccoli, drizzled with screw-pressed sesame oil, organic ginger and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. And for dessert, half a cup of frozen strawberries with purified water with Stevia, honey or coconut crystals, blended and served as a shake.